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Newswire : Orbital smash

7 March 1998

A piece of space junk destroyed the final stage of a ballistic missile in
January during routine tests of the US military’s missile defence system.

The 5-metre rocket booster, which had been jettisoned after deploying dummy
warheads, collided with the debris about 390 kilometres above the Pacific as it
fell towards the atmosphere. Lieutenant-Colonel Rick Lehner of the Ballistic
Missile Defense Organization says: “I’ve been in missiles for going on 20 years,
and I’ve never seen it happen before.”